UCLA’s Paul Perkins finds running room in the Stanford secondary Saturday.The UCLA Bruins host the Stanford Cardinal Friday November 28, 2014 in a college football game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. (Will Lester/Staff Photographer)

Paul Perkins wasn’t UCLA’s starting running back to start the year, but he has ended the regular season as the Pac-12’s leading rusher.

The redshirt sophomore has run for 1,381 yards in 12 games, putting him on top of the conference’s tightest rushing race in years. The league’s last six rushing champions had an average of 238.3 yards more than the second-place finisher. Just 44 yards separate Perkins from this year’s No. 2 and No. 3.

However, the Pac-12’s record book also factors in postseason games, including the Pac-12 Championship this Friday. And with a bowl game left to add to his total, Perkins has plenty of competition.

Utah’s Devontae Booker is just 31 yards behind, and like Perkins, still has a postseason game left. The same goes for USC’s Javorius “Buck” Allen, who sits at 1,337 yards.

Arizona’s Nick Wilson, who missed a game in October due to injury, is only 118 yards behind Perkins and will get a shot to make up that difference when Arizona faces Oregon for the Pac-12 title this coming Friday. The Ducks’ true freshman workhorse Royce Freeman can do the same, but may be too far behind at 1,186 yards — even if his team makes it all the way to the national title game.

UCLA has not had a conference rushing champion since DeShaun Foster in 2001.

Perkins currently has the sixth-best single-season rushing total in UCLA history, and has a great chance to pass Gaston Green (1,405) for third. If Perkins has a career day in the bowl game, he could even top Karim Abdul-Jabbar (1,571) for second. The 5-foot-11, 198-pound back has rushed for at least 73 yards in every single game, including 80 in the Bruins’ season opener behind then-starter Jordon James.

Free fallin’

UCLA is ranked No. 16 in the Associated Press poll — the same spot it held after its Sun Bowl win over Virginia Tech last year.

A 31-10 loss to Stanford on Friday dropped the Bruins seven spots, ending a four-week streak of steady climbs up the national rankings. UCLA is now the third-highest ranked team in the Pac-12, behind No. 3 Oregon and No. 8 Arizona, who will face each other at Levi’s Stadium this coming Friday.

Jim Mora’s third season will likely end in the Alamo, Holiday or Foster Farms Bowl. The Alamo Bowl could pick UCLA if both the Ducks and the Wildcats earn spots in “New Year’s Six” bowls — and if it prefers the Bruins to Arizona State. The Holiday Bowl has the next selection out of the Pac-12, and executive director Bruce Binkowski told the U-T San Diego that the Bruins and USC are both potential choices.

Jack Wang covers the Chargers, the latest NFL team to relocate to Los Angeles. He previously covered the Rams, and also spent four years on the UCLA beat, a strange period in which the Bruins' football program often outpaced their basketball team. He is a proud graduate of UC Berkeley, where he spent most of his time in The Daily Californian offices in Eshleman Hall — a building that did not become earthquake-safe until after his time on campus.

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